Donna in the News – Maryland Theatre, Hagerstown, MD, November 1920

Posted on November 4, 2026 by Don Taylor

Updated 4 November 2026

(Originally published 1 August 2026)

By Don Taylor

In mid-November 1920, my grandmother, Donna Montran, headlined the vaudeville bill at the Maryland Theatre in Hagerstown, Maryland. She appeared with Tom Rooney’s Bathing Beauties in A Beach Promenade, billed by Hagerstown’s Daily Mail as “Donna Montram.” Tom Rooney, Donna’s husband of nearly five years, presented the act; they married on November 24, 1915.

The Daily Mail tells the story in three items: a Saturday ad promising the act for the following week, the engagement ad itself, and a glowing review that ran on November 12, 1920.

The Engagement

Donna played the Maryland Theatre for the last half of the week, Thursday through Saturday, November 11–13, 1920. Opening night fell on Armistice Day, the second anniversary of the end of the Great War.

The theatre began advertising the act on Saturday, November 6. Its big ad for the Monday–Wednesday bill ended with a teaser:

1920 Maryland Theatre advertisement announcing Tom Rooney's Bathing Beauties with Donna Montram in A Beach Promenade, coming the last half of next week
Maryland Theatre advertisement, Daily Mail, Hagerstown, MD, November 6, 1920.

THE PRIZE WINNER OF THE YEAR COMING THE LAST HALF OF NEXT WEEK — TOM ROONEY’S BATHING BEAUTIES WITH DONNA MONTRAM IN “A BEACH PROMENADE.” TEN OF CALIFORNIA’S SELECTED PEACHES — ALSO OTHER BIG ACTS.

The engagement ad billed the act as the “Supreme Triumph of the Year.” The Maryland ran three shows daily, at 2:30, 7:30, and 9:00 p.m.

SeatingPrice
Matinee17¢, 22¢, 28¢
Evening22¢, 28¢, 33¢, 44¢
Box50¢

The last ad I found ran on November 12. From Hagerstown, the act moved on to the Pastime Theatre in Union Hill, New Jersey, for November 15–17, 1920.

The act also appeared in the local theatrical calendars on November 8, 9 and 12, where Donna’s name ran in the same column as Man o’ War.

1920 theatrical calendar listing Tom Rooney presents Donna Montran and Bathing Beauties at the Maryland Theatre
“Attractions at the Leading Theatres,” Hagerstown, MD, November 12, 1920, p. 5.

The Production and Cast

1920 Maryland Theatre advertisement: Tom Rooney presents Donna Montram and her Bathing Beauties in A Beach Promenade
Maryland Theatre advertisement, Daily Mail, Hagerstown, MD, November 12, 1920.

A Beach Promenade was a bathing-beauty revue in the style made famous by Mack Sennett’s films. Tom Rooney presented Donna with a line of young women billed as Californians. The review said they had “won nationwide popularity by their appearance before the moving picture camera.”

The act mixed singing and dancing with a parade of costumes “representing the various nationalities, and seaside resorts in this country.” The ads promised ten “Selected Peaches”; the reviewer counted “eight in all, and Miss Donna Montram.”

The rest of the bill, as advertised:

ActBilling
Bob Milligan“Comedian De Luxe”
Galetti’s Monkeys (the review spells it “Galatini’s Baboons”)“Monkey’s Day at the Races,” “The funniest act in vaudeville”
Man O’ War and Sir Barton“In their last race,” a special picture
The Maryland NewsNewsreel
Overall HeroChester comedy short

The race film showed the October 12, 1920 match race at Kenilworth Park in Windsor, Ontario. It was Man o’ War’s final race, and he beat the 1919 Triple Crown winner Sir Barton easily.

Reviews and Reception

1920 newspaper review praising Donna Montran and Tom Rooney's Bathing Beauties at the Maryland Theatre
“Rooney’s Bathing Beauties Score Big Success at Md.,” Daily Mail, Hagerstown, MD, November 12, 1920, p. 3.

The Daily Mail’s November 12 review on page 3, headlined “Rooney’s Bathing Beauties Score Big Success at Md.,” called the act a hit. It described crowds outside the theatre on opening night:

That there was something unusual or extraordinarily attractive being offered at the Maryland would be the conclusion that most everybody would arrive at had they seen the throngs of people entering the Maryland Theatre last evening.

The writer singled out Donna and the troupe as headliners:

Tom Rooney’s bathing beauties, eight in all, and Miss Donna Montram, in their exhubrant beach promenade headlined the show, but not in the usual way.

The review praised the costumes and the staging, saying the act’s “triumph over the first night audiences will go down in history, for not in a blue moon has any completely captivated the audience the way this offering did.” It concluded that “the new show that is now in it’s second day is certainly a sure fire winner, from every viewpoint.”

The baboons drew laughs “most every minute of the time,” and Bob Milligan “won many rounds of applause.” The reviewer called the race film “well worth seeing” and the whole program “one of the greatest bills of vaudeville offered in this city.” The review never mentioned that Tom Rooney and Donna were husband and wife.

A note on the name. The Daily Mail printed her as “Donna Montram” throughout this engagement. The spelling turns up repeatedly in sources from this period when she toured with Tom Rooney. I have kept the paper’s spelling in quotations because that is what was printed.

Theatre Profile

The Maryland Theatre was Hagerstown’s leading vaudeville and photoplay house in 1920. Its ads promised “All that’s good in Vaudeville and short snappy Photoplays,” backed by the ten-piece Maryland Concert Orchestra. Charles Thropp was general manager. Its rivals that week were Nixon’s Academy, presenting the musical comedy Honeymoon Night, and the Palace, showing Wanda Hawley in Food for Scandal.

History of the Theatre

The Potomac Realty Company built the Maryland for about $200,000. It opened on May 10, 1915, with a live orchestra and the five-reel feature The Commuters. Tickets cost 10¢, or 35¢ for a box.

The Maryland began as a vaudeville house. Sound films arrived in June 1928 with The Jazz Singer, and it became primarily a movie theatre. Warner Bros. ran it from 1930 to 1953, followed by Stanley Warner and RKO-Stanley Warner.

Full-time movies ended in November 1973. A fire on February 8, 1974 destroyed the front block and lobby, but the auditorium survived. A local funeral director, Gerald N. Minnich, bought the building in 1976 as it faced demolition. Restored by local citizens, it reopened in 1978.

Location Today

The Maryland Theatre still stands at 21 South Potomac Street in downtown Hagerstown. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (November 13, 1976). A centennial restoration followed in 2015, and a five-level Performing Arts Center opened beside it in 2019. It is home to the Maryland Symphony Orchestra and seats about 1,293.

Theatre Specifications

Address21–23 South Potomac Street, Hagerstown, MD
OpenedMay 10, 1915
ArchitectsHarry E. Yessler (Hagerstown) with Thomas W. Lamb (New York)
Interior designArthur Brounet (New York)
ContractorGeorge Wolfe (Hagerstown)
CostAbout $200,000
Original seatingAbout 1,400
StyleNeoclassical
General manager (1920)Charles Thropp
StatusActive performing arts venue

Significance

Hagerstown is one of the best-documented stops on Donna’s 1920 Beach Promenade tour, with a teaser ad, an engagement ad, and a full review. The ads also confirm that Tom Rooney himself presented the act, so the couple was touring together five years into their marriage. The engagement closed just eleven days before their fifth wedding anniversary.

It is also a reminder of what vaudeville audiences got for 44¢: Donna’s revue, a comic, trained baboons, a newsreel, a comedy short, and film of the most famous racehorse of the day.

I love finding these little theatrical calendars and ads — the kind of thing nobody kept on purpose, but which somehow survived. Seeing my grandmother’s name beside Man o’ War in the same column makes that week feel vivid. Hagerstown clearly gave her a warm welcome that November.

Sources

  1. Maryland Theatre advertisement, Daily Mail (Hagerstown, MD), November 6, 1920.
  2. Maryland Theatre advertisement, Daily Mail (Hagerstown, MD), November 12, 1920.
  3. “Rooney’s Bathing Beauties Score Big Success at Md.,” Daily Mail (Hagerstown, MD), November 12, 1920, p. 3.
  4. “Theatrical Calendar: Attractions at the Local Theatres This Week,” The Herald-Mail, November 8, 1920, p. 5.
  5. “Attractions at the Leading Theatres,” The Herald-Mail, November 9, 1920, p. 5.
  6. “Attractions at the Leading Theatres,” The Herald-Mail, November 12, 1920, p. 5.
  7. Maryland Theatre history, The Maryland Theatre.
  8. Maryland Theatre (Hagerstown), Wikipedia.
  9. Maryland Theatre, Hagerstown, Cinema Treasures.
  10. Academy Theatre (Nixon’s Academy), Hagerstown, Cinema Treasures.
  11. Kenilworth Park Racetrack, Wikipedia.
  12. The California Bathing Beauties at the Pastime Theatre, Union Hill, NJ, Nov 15–17, 1920, dontaylorgenealogy.com.

Newspaper items accessed via Newspapers.com.

This article was researched and written by the author. Claude (Anthropic) was used as a research and drafting aid, and Grammarly was used for editorial review and copyediting.

Posted in Theatre History, Beach Promenade (1920), In the news, Donna Montran, Vaudeville | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ancestor Sketch – Anna Maria (Oertli) Trumpi

Posted on October 23, 2026 by Don Taylor

Darling-Huber 2026 – Ancestor #61
Darling-Huber-Trümpi Oertli Line 

By Don Taylor

Map of the Glarus area of Switzerland

Anna Maria Oertli was born in the shadow of the Glärnisch, in a Swiss village where nearly everyone could recite which of a handful of old families they belonged to. She married into one of them, the Trümpis, buried an infant daughter during the hunger winter of 1847, and spent her last years more than 4,000 miles away, in the coal-and-river country southeast of Pittsburgh. She lies today in a small-town Pennsylvania cemetery under a name — “Anna M. O. Trumpi” — that quietly carries her maiden initial across the ocean with her.

List of Grandparents

  • Grandmother:  Florence Wilma Huber Darling (1908-1934)
  • Great-grandmother:  Bertha Barbara Trümpi Huber (1884-1968)
  • 2nd Great-grandfather: Bernhead Trumpi (1844-1913)
  • 3rd Great-grandmother: Anna Maria Oertli (1823–1896)
  • 4th Great-grandfather: Fridolin Oertli (1779–1827)*
  • 5th Great-grandfather: Othmar Oertli (1745-1819)
  • 6th Great-grandfather:Josua Oertli (1713-1794)
  • 7th Great-grandfather: Hans Heinrich Oertli (1679-1745)
  • 8th Great-grandfather: Josua Oertli (1644-1702)
* I have not researched Fridolin Oertli (1799-1827) not any of his ancestors. His ancestor names are tentative/speculative.

Anna Maria (Oertli) Trumpi (1823–1896)

Birth

Anna Maria Öertli was born on 4 December 1823 in Ennenda, Canton Glarus, Switzerland, the daughter of Fridolin Öertli and Sara Heer.3,4,5 Ennenda sits just across the Linth River from the town of Glarus, the cantonal capital. In Anna Maria’s lifetime, it was one of the centers of the Glarus textile-printing trade.

Childhood

Anna Maria’s childhood was marked early by loss. Her father, Fridolin, died in 1827, when she was about three years old. My records list six siblings — Abraham, Fridolin, Felix, and Josua, who were older, and her younger siblings, Sara and Johannes (who died as an infant). Like most Glarus girls of her generation, she probably grew up in a household that depended on the mills and print works along the Linth, supplemented by small-scale farming and alpine pasture.

Marriage

On 30 January 1844, at age 20, Anna Maria married Bernhard Trümpi in Ennenda.2,3,4 He was the son of Bernhard Trümpi and Anna Maria Dürst.2,3,9 Their first child, Bernhard, arrived on 16 May 1844, about three and a half months after the wedding — not an unusual circumstance for the time and place.4,11

The Hungry Years

The young family began life together at a hard moment. Hand printing and weaving were losing ground to mechanization, and in 1845–1847 the potato blight and failed harvests brought real hunger to the Swiss mountain cantons. Glarus responded partly by organizing emigration; in 1845, a party of Glarner settlers founded New Glarus, Wisconsin, and several Trümpi families eventually followed.

Anna Maria and Bernhard stayed. Their daughter Maria Magdalena was born on 12 August 1846 in the hamlet of Ennetbühls, part of Ennenda. She lived just five months, dying on 28 January 1847 in the depth of that hungry winter.18 Five years later, on 3 March 1852, also in Ennetbühls, Anna Maria gave birth to a son, Fridolin — the boy who would become John Frederick “Fred” Trumpi in America.4,7,15

Children of Bernhard and Anna Maria (Oertli) Trümpi

ChildBornDiedSpouse(s)
Bernhard Trümpi 3,4,1116 May 1844, Ennenda28 Dec 1913, Switzerland(1) Regula Stüssi, 2 Jul 1867; (2) Bertha Koch, 10 Feb 1883 — both in Ennenda
Maria Magdalena Trümpi 1812 Aug 1846, Ennetbühls, Ennenda28 Jan 1847, Ennetbühls, Ennenda—
Fridolin “John Frederick” (Fred) Trumpi 4,7,143 Mar 1852, Ennetbühls, Ennenda24 Oct 1917, Lincoln Twp., Allegheny Co., PAKatherine Eubley, abt. 1875

The gaps between 1846 and 1852, and after 1852, suggest there may have been other children who have not yet been identified.

Emigration

When Anna Maria left Switzerland is unknown. Anna’s husband died on 20 March 1870 in Ennetbühls. Her younger son, Fred, came to Pennsylvania and married Catherine Eubley about 1875.16,17 Anna Maria followed — or perhaps came with him — sometime before 1880.

Life in Pennsylvania

On 1 June 1880, the census taker found Anna Maria living in Lincoln Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, boarding in the household of John Webley along with her son Fred and his family.10 Lincoln Township lay in the rural southeastern corner of the county, near the Monongahela and Youghiogheny Rivers and the borough of Elizabeth. Anna Maria was then about fifty-six.

The household head’s name is worth a second look. Fred’s wife, Catherine, is recorded as a servant in John Webley’s household. However, if the census taker misheard the name, it could have been “Eubley.” If so, John Webley could have been Catherine’s relation. Fred and Anna Maria are listed as boarders.

Death and Burial

Anna Maria (Oertli) Trumpi died on 24 March 1896 in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, at the age of seventy-two.3,4,5 She was buried in Elizabeth Cemetery in Elizabeth, Allegheny County, where her memorial reads “Anna M O Trumpi.”5 Her son Fred was laid to rest in the same cemetery when he died in 1917.14

Research Notes

  1. Birth year. FamilySearch and Patrick Wild give 4 December 1823; the Find a Grave memorial gives 1828.4,3,5 I have accepted 1823 as the better-supported date, but the age in the 1880 census is not legible.
  2. Source quality. Most of the evidence so far is derivative — online trees, Find a Grave, and Patrick Wild’s compiled pedigree. Under the Genealogical Proof Standard, the Swiss conclusions in particular should be checked against original parish registers.

Further Actions / Follow-up

  • Search the Ennenda Reformed parish registers and the Kubly-Müller Genealogiewerk des Kantons Glarus for Anna Maria’s baptism, her marriage, her parents, and all of her children.
  • Search 1865–1880 passenger lists and the 1870 census for Anna Maria, Bernhard, and Fred.
  • Look for Anna Maria in the Allegheny County death register (1893–1905) and in Pittsburgh-area newspapers for an obituary.

Sources

1. Pennsylvania Death Certificate #109868, Frederick Trumpe (1917). Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906–1965, Ancestry.com.
2. Patrick A. Wild, Descent of Mary-Alice Darling Howell from Charlemagne (Zurich, 2021), p. 13.
3. Patrick A. Wild, Pedigree Chart for Shirley Elizabeth Darling: Following the Trümpy line in Glarus (2021), p. 002.
4. FamilySearch Family Tree, Family Group Record – Bernhard Truempy (LTQV-JFS), accessed 15 Dec 2018.
5. Find a Grave, Anna M O Trumpi, memorial no. 116047103, Elizabeth Cemetery, Elizabeth, Allegheny Co., PA, accessed 15 Dec 2018.
6. FamilySearch Family Tree, Anna Maria Oertli (LTQV-J9C).
7. Heather’s Ancestor Hunt, “Descendants of Benhart TRUMPE [LKWX-DPP],” https://heathersancestorhunt.weebly.com/trumpie.html.
8. FamilySearch Family Tree, Anna Maria Dürst (LBW7-XY6) — no sources attached.
9. Geneanet, Patrick WILD’s Family Tree, Anna Maria Dürst, accessed 22 Apr 2026.
10. 1880 U.S. Census, Lincoln, Allegheny Co., PA; Roll 1089, p. 383A, ED 066. Ancestry.com.
11. FamilySearch Family Tree, Family Group Record – Bernhard Truempy (LB7D-66R), accessed 15 Dec 2018.
12. Find a Grave, John Frederick “Fred” Trumpi, memorial no. 116042448, Elizabeth Cemetery, accessed 16 Dec 2018.
13. 1900 U.S. Census, Lincoln Twp., Allegheny Co., PA, Fred Trumfee (Trumpi), head. FamilySearch.
14. 1910 U.S. Census, Lincoln Twp., Allegheny Co., PA, ED 114, sheet 3A, family 37, Fred Trumpe. FamilySearch.

Disclaimer: Written by Don Taylor with research and drafting assistance from Claude.ai and editing support from Grammarly.

Posted in Ancestor Sketch, Darling-Huber | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Donna Darling and Her Girls at the Elks’ Mardi Gras, Carlinville, IL – Week of October 12, 1925

Posted on October 12, 2026 by Don Taylor

In October 1925, my grandmother — working under her stage name, Donna Darling — played one of the more unusual dates I have found in her career. Instead of a theatre, Donna and her girls performed “Her Little Revue” under a huge circus tent at the Elks’ Mardi Gras and Auto Show in Carlinville, Illinois, a county-seat town of about 5,000 people roughly forty miles south of Springfield. A run of short items in the two Springfield dailies, the State Journal and the Illinois State Register, lets us follow the carnival from the day its tent arrived to its final night.

The Engagement

Carlinville Elks Lodge put on a week-long Mardi Gras and automobile show, billed as the “Biggest carnival in Central Illinois.” The proceeds went to charity.[2] Preparations were reported as early as October 6, when the State Journal announced that “the great circus tent for the Elks’ carnival here next week has arrived.” It also reported that the management had “booked a number of high-class vaudeville performers from the Orpheum circuit,” including “the prettiest of girls, all famed for fun and pep,” and that “one of the numbers will be a miniature musical revue.”[1] That miniature musical revue was almost certainly Donna’s act.

The carnival opened at 5 p.m. on Monday, October 12, 1925.[2][3] That morning’s State Journal named the vaudeville acts. They came through the Western Vaudeville Managers’ Association, “affiliated with the Orpheum circuit,” and included “Two Sunflowers from Dixie” and:

Donna Darling and her girls in “Her Little Revue” with a wonderful finale, “The Evolution of a Bathing Suit,” will be sure to please. These acts will cost $1,500 and are free to all who attend the carnival.

The State Journal (Springfield, IL), October 12, 1925[4]

The Mardi Gras ran through Saturday, October 17. On that day the Illinois State Register reported that “today is the last day of the Elks’ big Mardi Gras and automobile show.”[6] Donna’s own run may have been shorter than the carnival’s, though. On Wednesday, October 14, the State Journal noted that “there will be a complete change of vaudeville tomorrow night.”[5] Western Vaudeville routinely booked its acts in split weeks. Only the week before, Donna Darling and Girls and Padgett & Harmon’s “Two Sunflowers from Dixie” had shared a Monday-to-Wednesday bill at the Lincoln Theatre in Belleville, Illinois, October 5–7.[7] This suggests the same unit played the first half of the Carlinville week, Monday through Wednesday, October 12–14, and that a new bill took over on Thursday.

The Production and Cast

“Her Little Revue” was a small-girl act, with Donna leading a line of chorus girls in song and dance. The Belleville paper called it a “Song and Dance Revue.”[7] The Carlinville notices single out its finale, “The Evolution of a Bathing Suit.” The bathing-suit theme ran through much of Donna’s work in the mid-1920s. That same year she toured with the California Bathing Girls, and a fashion parade of swimwear from modest Victorian costume to the daring one-piece of 1925 would have been a natural crowd-pleaser.

The vaudeville was only part of the entertainment. Every evening the program combined:

  • Donna Darling and her girls in “Her Little Revue”
  • “Two Sunflowers from Dixie,” billed as “the funniest comedy act obtainable.” This was Padgett & Harmon, a blackface comedy duo, which was a common and now uncomfortable staple of 1920s vaudeville.[1][7]
  • Dance orchestras: Roche’s singing band, Bradley’s Favorites, Gillespie’s Golden Peacocks, and Widener’s orchestra of Gillespie[4][5]
  • Local bands: the Standard City Boys’ band, the Girard Boys’ band, and the Kincaid band[4]
  • An automobile show with exhibitors “from Springfield to St. Louis”[4]
  • A “most popular lady” contest, also called the carnival queen contest, decided by ballot[5][6]

George A. Childs of Kansas City directed the carnival.[4]

Reviews and Reception

The newspapers did not review individual acts, but their reports show the vaudeville was a real draw. Halfway through the week, the State Journal’s Carlinville correspondent wrote:

The great tent was thronged again tonight with merrymakers. The automobiles on display are attracting much attention as each car is the latest pattern its company has to offer. The entertainers attract a big crowd each performance. They are from the Orpheum circuit.

The State Journal, “Vote on Carnival Queen,” Carlinville, October 14, 1925[5]

By the end of the week the Register judged the event a success:

Many of the best features have been saved for the last night and the big tent is expected to be filled to overflowing with visitors. The carnival has been a decided asset to the life of the city during the last week.

Illinois State Register, October 17, 1925[6]

Venue Profile: The Great Tent

This engagement had no theatre. The Elks rented a circus tent 80 feet wide and 200 feet long and pitched it “on the land owned by Dr. Conley on North Broad street just off the square.”[1] The tent sheltered the vaudeville stage, the automobile display, and a “big dance platform” that was “erected for the pleasure of those who enjoy dancing.”[2][3] The auto show opened at 7 o’clock each evening, and the features followed “in rapid succession, assuring the public of a continuous good time.”[4]

Playing under canvas was a different job from playing a theatre. There was no proscenium, no fly loft, and no dressing rooms in the usual sense. The audience had not bought tickets and drifted between the cars, the dance floor, and the stage. For a girl act built around costume changes, ending with a parade of bathing suits, it must have taken some improvising.

History of the Venue: Carlinville and Its Elks

Carlinville was founded in 1829 and is the county seat of Macoupin County. The 1920 census counted 5,212 residents.[8] The town is dominated by the Macoupin County Courthouse, built from 1867 to 1870 at a cost of more than $1.5 million and known ever since as the “Million Dollar Courthouse.”[9] Its square was lined with businesses and the 1870 Loomis House hotel.[11] By the 1920s the town also had a new neighborhood of Sears catalog homes that Standard Oil of Indiana had built in 1918 for its coal miners. This connects to the Standard City Boys’ band that played at the carnival.[8]

The host was Carlinville Lodge No. 1412 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. The lodge is still active and still raises funds for “educational, patriotic, and community-minded programs.”[12] A week-long Mardi Gras with hired vaudeville, a car show, dancing, and a popularity contest was a typical Elks fundraiser of the 1920s. The committee had “worked for months for its perfection,” and the profits went “for charities.”[2]

Location Today

The tent stood on North Broad Street just off the public square in Carlinville, Illinois 62626.[1] The exact lot owned by “Dr. Conley” has not been identified. The setting has its own historical footnote. A year later, in 1926, North Broad Street became part of the original alignment of U.S. Route 66, which entered town on Broad Street and circled the square until the highway was moved east to Litchfield in 1929–30.[10][11] A historical marker titled “Circling the Square” now stands on the north side of the square at North Broad Street, a short walk from where Donna and her girls performed.[10] The square, the courthouse, and the Loomis House survive today within the Carlinville Historic District.

Venue Specifications

  • Venue: Circus tent (temporary), Elks’ Mardi Gras and Auto Show
  • Dimensions: 80 x 200 ft.[1]
  • Site: Land of Dr. Conley, North Broad Street, just off the public square, Carlinville, IL[1]
  • Host: Carlinville Lodge No. 1412, B.P.O.E.
  • Director: George A. Childs, Kansas City[4]
  • Booking office: Western Vaudeville Managers’ Association (Orpheum affiliate)[4]
  • Admission to vaudeville: Free with carnival attendance[1][4]
  • Cost of vaudeville acts: “over $1,000” (Oct. 6 estimate); $1,500 (Oct. 12)[1][4]
  • Features: Vaudeville stage, dance platform, automobile show
  • Carnival dates: Monday, October 12 – Saturday, October 17, 1925

Significance

Most of Donna’s documented dates were in theatres, from big-city picture palaces to small-town vaudeville houses. Carlinville shows another side of a 1920s vaudeville career. Small-time acts filled their routes with fairs, carnivals, and lodge benefits that the circuits booked alongside regular theatre time. Here Donna performed for free to the crowds at a small-town charity carnival, sharing a tent with new automobiles, dance bands, and a popularity contest.

The engagement also links to her October 1925 route. The same pairing of Donna Darling and Girls with “Two Sunflowers from Dixie” appeared at Belleville’s Lincoln Theatre on October 5–7 and at the Carlinville Elks’ Mardi Gras the following week. That suggests Western Vaudeville was sending the two acts around southern and central Illinois as a package. And the State Journal’s mention of a finale called “The Evolution of a Bathing Suit” tells us something new about the act itself.

Sources

  1. “Elks Secure Orpheum Acts for Carnival.” The State Journal (Springfield, Illinois), Oct 7, 1925, page 8 – “Dateline Carlinville, Oct. 6, 1925.” Accessed via Newspapers.com.
  2. “Carlinville Is Set for Elks’ Big Carnival.” The State Journal (Springfield, Illinois), Oct. 10, 1925, page 8. “Dateline Carlinville, Oct. 9, 1925. Accessed via Newspapers.com.
  3. “Elks’ Carnival at Carlinville Opens Monday.” Illinois State Register (Springfield, Illinois), Oct 10, 1925, page 10. “Dateline Carlinville, Oct. 10, 1925. Accessed via Newspapers.com.
  4. “Elks’ Carnival to Hold Stage in Carlinville.” The State Journal (Springfield, Illinois), October 12, 1925, p. 4. Accessed via Newspapers.com (image no. 1328144927).
  5. “Vote on Carnival Queen.” The State Journal Register (Springfield, Illinois), Oct 15, page 20, “Dateline Carlinville, Oct. 14, 1925. Accessed via Newspapers.com.
  6. “Elks’ Carnival Beauty Contest Closes Tonight.” Illinois State Register (Springfield, Illinois), October 17, 1925, p. 10. Accessed via Newspapers.com.
  7. Belleville Daily News-Democrat (Belleville, Illinois), October 6, 1925. See “Donna Darling – Lincoln Theatre, Belleville, IL – 6 October 1925,” dontaylorgenealogy.com. https://dontaylorgenealogy.com/2022/07/donna-darling-lincoln-theatre-belleville-il-6-october-1925/
  8. “Carlinville, Illinois.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlinville,_Illinois
  9. “Macoupin County Courthouse.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macoupin_County_Courthouse
  10. “Circling the Square” Historical Marker. The Historical Marker Database (HMdb.org). https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=144482
  11. “Carlinville, Route 66 Illinois.” TheRoute-66.com. https://www.theroute-66.com/carlinville.html
  12. Carlinville, IL Lodge No. 1412, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. https://www.elks.org/1412
Posted in Donna Darling and Girls, In the news, Donna Montran, Vaudeville | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“Actress, Detroit Girl, Here This Month”: When the Newspaper Gets It Wrong

Posted on October 9, 2026 by Don Taylor
Profile portrait of actress Donna Montran with full curly hair, from The Detroit News, 1920.
Miss Donna Montran, The Detroit News, February 8, 1920, p. 61 (contrast enhanced).

Sometimes the newspaper gets it wrong. But even when it does, it can still hand us some wonderful information.

On Sunday, February 8, 1920, The Detroit News ran a small feature on page 61 under the headline “Actress, Detroit Girl, Here This Month.” It included a striking profile photograph of Donna. The original newspaper image was very dark, but a little gentle editing brought out a lovely portrait.

The caption reads:

Miss Donna Montran, a former Detroit girl, will appear here some time this month in Chin Chin. She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. H. Knight, 628 Lawndale avenue.

Calling her a “Detroit girl” was fair enough. Although Donna grew up in Albion, Michigan, she lived at various times in Detroit, Rochester and several other places, and more than one city was happy to claim her.

Where was Chin Chin in February 1920?

In early February 1920, Donna and the Chin Chin company were touring Wisconsin and Indiana. They crossed into Michigan later in the month and spent the rest of February touring the state:

  • February 21–22: Grand Rapids, MI, at the Powers Theater
  • February 23: Muskegon, MI, at the Regent Theater
  • February 24: Unknown
  • February 25: Bay City, MI, at the Washington Theater
  • February 26: Saginaw, MI, at the Auditorium Theatre, where Donna was singled out for her role in the show
  • February 27: Unknown
  • February 28: Ann Arbor, MI, at the Whitney Theater
  • February 29: Sunday, with no performance (1920 was a leap year)

From Michigan, the show moved on to a run of engagements in New York.

Did Donna play Detroit?

When Chin Chin played larger cities, it usually stayed at least two days and often longer. Grand Rapids, the largest Michigan city on the route, got two days. After that the company made one-night stands in smaller cities, with only February 24 and 27 unaccounted for. Neither open day leaves room for a Detroit engagement of the usual length. So although The Detroit News announced that Donna would appear “some time this month,” I don’t believe she ever did.

What the paper got right

The caption’s real gift is the family detail. “Mr. and Mrs. H. Knight” were Donna’s mother, Ida Mae Barber, and her stepfather, Harvey Watson Knight. The 1920 census confirms that they were living at 628 Lawndale Avenue in Detroit’s Ward 20. So a brief notice that got the engagement wrong still places Donna’s mother and stepfather at a specific address at a specific time, and gives us a beautiful portrait of Donna besides.

Sources

  1. “Actress, Detroit Girl, Here This Month.” The Detroit News (Detroit, Michigan), Sunday, February 8, 1920, p. 61.
  2. “United States Census, 1920,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MZWK-739 : accessed 12 May 2019), Harvey Knight, Detroit Ward 20, Wayne, Michigan, United States; citing ED 613, sheet 19B, line 89, family 434, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1992), roll 812; FHL microfilm 1,820,812.
  3. Donna Montran, Vaudeville page, dontaylorgenealogy.com (Chin Chin 1919–20 tour route).
Posted in In the news, 1919-20 - Chin Chin, Donna Montran, Vaudeville | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Donna, Sammy & Hal — Worcester, Massachusetts (July 1927)

Posted on September 19, 2026 by Don Taylor

In the News
by Don Taylor

Palace Theatre, Worcester, Massachusetts

Evening Gazette, July 7, 1927, page 19.

During the second week of July 1927, Donna Darling brought her own touring company — the Donna Darling Revue, featuring Sammy Clark and Hal Dixon — to the Palace Theatre in Worcester, Massachusetts, for a three-day run on the second half of the week’s bill, sharing the program with C. B. Maddock’s headline act “Tramp, Tramp, Tramp” and the Buffalo Bill, Jr. comedy “The Galloping Gobs.” Coverage in the Worcester Evening Gazette ran on three consecutive days, July 7 through 9, 1927.

Thursday’s opening-day notice described Donna Darling as “a recent recruit from screen and beauty contests,” naming Sammy Clark and Hal Dixon as members of her company alongside fellow bill members Harry Adler and Rose Dunbar, William Peel and Paul Corvin, and Marshall and LaRue; a same-day display ad billed the act simply as the “Donna Darling Revue with Sammy Clark and Hal Dixon.”¹²

Friday’s more detailed feature — published on the house’s traditional “Amateurs Tonight” evening — reported that “two men and a girl offer the Donna Darling revue,” praising the “lively exchange of comedy” and noting it was “liberally applauded by the audience”; that evening’s ad carried the same billing as Thursday’s.³⁴

Saturday’s closing-day piece — built around a photograph of visiting Monday headliner Franklyn Farnum and previewing Sunday’s screening of “Faust” and Monday’s all-new vaudeville bill — confirmed that among the outgoing week’s acts, “the Donna Darling Revue scores easily.”⁵

This Worcester stop slots neatly into a documented one-week New England swing: Donna, Sammy, and Hal had played Poli’s Palace in Springfield earlier that same week, and would move on to the Olympia Theatre in New Bedford immediately after. For me, seeing all three engagements line up back-to-back across a single week is the real payoff — it turns three separate archival finds into one continuous, dated itinerary of exactly where my grandmother’s company was standing, night by night, in July 1927.

Endnotes

  1. “Palace,” Evening Gazette (Worcester, Massachusetts), 7 July 1927, p. 11.
  2. Display advertisement, Evening Gazette (Worcester, Massachusetts), 7 July 1927, p. 19.
  3. “Dance and Song Palace Features,” Evening Gazette (Worcester, Massachusetts), 8 July 1927, p. 4.
  4. Display advertisement (“Amateurs Tonight”), Evening Gazette (Worcester, Massachusetts), 8 July 1927, p. 23.
  5. “Franklyn Farnum on Palace Bill,” Evening Gazette (Worcester, Massachusetts), 9 July 1927, p. 5.
Disclaimer: This article was researched and written by the author. Claude (Anthropic) was used as a research and drafting aid, and Grammarly was used for editorial review and copy editing.
Posted in In the news, Donna Darling Revue, Donna Montran, Vaudeville | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment